Pokemon Fan Film Part 2 - Check it out if you haven't! Short by Joel Otero (My brother :D ) - Check out part 2 of the PTD Fan Film!

New Story Level - Route 12 - Relax by the pier, train and catch some water pokemon.New Pokemon to capture - Lapras!Level cap up to 64Added more features to the chat to prevent spamming

Added names being in a blue color to prevent users from impersonating other people.

Satoshi users will now have name Satoshi1, Satoshi2... etc.

It is now possible to ignore somebody by typing in /ignore nickname (Replace nickname with the users nickname)

New TM - Ice Beam

Made the Waterfall attack animation quickerMade Waterfall attack show the correct attack type (not effective, super effective or normal Fixed Zap Cannon doing Shadow Ball instead of Zap CannonMake Destiny Bond and moves like that only work on pokemon that are at lower level than you Fixed Onix learning Double-Edge twice and not learning Stone-EdgeMade both Nidorans have a unique name ingame (Nidoran F and Nidoran M) It is no longer possible to put pokemon in type specific spots if they don't match the typeAdded the attack power to the attack description of Snore

Welcome to another week of Sam and Dan Games! Woooooo! Let's get started, yeahhh! Okay.. enough of that... So I was looking back at the first folder I made to start working on PTD and it's been over a year since I first started coding this game. The year anniversary release of the game is coming up in March and it's just incredible how far we have come in less than a year. I went from being able to answer every single comment, every single email and single twitter to barely being able to do so. I really wish I could but the amount that comes in everyday is just impossible. I'm not complaining I'm ecstatic knowing how big we are and how big we are going to become but I'm also kinda sad that I'm not able to keep up with the closeness that I had before. I'm still really open to all suggestions and I try to answer those that can't my eye or that offer something that hasn't been brought up before. So if you have tried to get in touch with me before and never got a response I'm really sorry about that, if it is really important then send me a new email and I will try to answer it.

Speaking of fan emails, an email I get a lot is "Hey I had like 20 Enteis and 10 Mews but I lost them in a recent patch" then I usually ask did you get it in a trade or did you buy it. Now let's stop for a second and look at why I ask that. The reason I ask that is SCAMMING! Not you getting scammed, but somebody scamming me. There is no possible way I can tell that you actually had that. It's even possible somebody let you borrow it so you could take a screenshot. The only possible way I know that you had it is if you bought it cause I can see the receipt. Most of the time if this happened to you I'm sorry to say that I can't return it to you.

Okay next let's talk about shinies! Taking them out of the game is something that I know everybody will not feel comfortable with. The fact of the matter is that shinies isn't supposed to be something that everybody has. Heck in the original games you barely saw them, I've played a lot of pokemon and have only seen like 2 shinies. You might ask well what about the mystery gift shiny pokemon? Well I try to say this often but I'm really appreciative and thankful for all the fans that visit us week after week, and I always like rewarding you guys for sticking with me. Mystery Gift is a way to reward players that keep coming back. Then you might ask well what about adoption? You just want money! You are being greedy! You only care about paying users! (Now I know most of you don't feel this way but I want to show you the extreme version.) The SnD coins is a way for you to contribute to us to help us make better games for you. But instead of just donating you are getting something in return, something that is not exclusive. But you might say well all the adoption shiny pokemon are exclusive right now! To that I say... well you are right. So my main priority this week is getting the "new" way of getting shinies up and running.

Okay so you might still be confused, shinies were hard to find, they had a low chance of showing up why take them away just to make a new way of getting them? what's the point? Well this kinda goes into the next thing I want to talk about and that is HACKING! Listen I know some of you out there use speed hacks, money hacks, and previously shiny hacks. I know it's pretty impossible to stop a lot of these but shiny hacks I just won't stand for them. There are players out there supporting me with their hard earned money and I just can't allow players to get the same thing just but running a program that let's them hack. I'm always going to try my best to try to stop this. That is why I had to take shinies out of the wild. Okay I know this is a long post but we haven't had one in a while so let's keep going! I'm going to talk about the new method of getting shinies.

UPDATE: Because of a large amount of the player base (about 40%) didn't really like the Shiny hunt idea I have decided to put it on hold, shiny pokemon will return to the wild but in a more secure way, in the future I will add something like the shiny hunt to give players an additional way of hunting shinies but for now it will have to wait. Thank you all for your feedback and support!

Sam

Okay I'm calling it... *drumroll*... SHINY HUNT!! Okay so now for the explanation. First is location, location, location. The shiny hunt will only take place in one location per week and everybody will be in the same location. For example the first week might be on Route 1, from there I will post a poll with some options on where to go next and we will go where you guys decide. So week by week you guys get to decide where you want the hunt to take place. So obviously the location will dictate who you can hunt. Using Route 1 as an example you will have a chance of getting shiny pidgey or shiny rattata. Right so let's talk about the "hunting" aspect of this. The hunting aspect is similar to something like the daily code. You come in see if you got lucky and receive your prize. But there are major differences. One is I'm adding a new thingy for the pokemon center that will let you pick a "team". You pick 6 pokemon that will be your current team. In the future you will be able to have your first pokemon in the team follow you in the avatar chat. But talking about shinies this team will show up with you when you shiny hunt. Your avatar will also be there. Having certain avatars and certain team combination will raise your chance of getting the shiny for that location. There won't be any clues and once the information is spread on what combination works I will change the combination. So to summarize:

Everybody has the same shiny hunt location every week.

There will be weekly poll about where to go next.

You pick a team of 6 pokemon that you own to be your designated "team".

You go to the shiny hunt section of the pokemon center and see if you found a shiny.

If a shiny shows up it will be placed in your pickup spot on the pokemon center instantly.

Also the dogs will also be available to be found on every location that you can hunt in so keep that in mind.

Okay so that's how it's going to be, no more grinding out your shinies and never getting them now you try different combinations of teams and avatars and see if you strike gold. If you find a combination that works well shhhh don't tell anybody or I will change it ;)

On a side note, not sure if you noticed but I added two new tabs to the blog. One is the HTD Tuesdays! tab and it just contains links to the past blog post about HTD in an easy to find way. The other one is the Labs tab and that one contains any ideas that we come up with but aren't officially working on yet. Let me know what you think of them.

Because this blog isn't long enough yet here are this week's questions!

Weekly Questions from the Forums!

1.matepokemon11: Hey, can you add a music option to change music, because i am getting bored of listening to the same music. And since you've added tons of music to the game, could you please make an option to change the music after each song has finished?
Sam: I wouldn't mind doing this but it really isn't a high priority, there is so much to do still. Good idea though.

2. Ninjaoety: As a game developer, do you work on your games 24/7, or do you have alot of spare time? You do finish releases for PTD quite fast in my opinion, so you must be working alot on them.
Sam: I don't have a set schedule, but it feels like I'm working all the time, I do take some time off in the weekends after the update is out to relax but during the week I work on the blog, answering twitter, emails, and the update constantly.
3. Robert Conley: Would you consider making a level builder so that anyone, including those w/ little to no coding knowledge, could make custom levels that others can play?
Sam: This would also be cool, but like the sound thing it's not really a high priority yet.
4. Ninja God: Can you make Avatars tradeable? I know some, like the dogs, are easily obtained by everyone, but I would like to be able to trade for both the mystery gift ones and the new Halloween ones that I'm missing.
Sam: Yes, I'm heavily considering this especially since some people have been getting duplicates, it would be cool if you could trade to complete the set.
5. KimmyLube: When are you putting me in PTD? LAWL JK JK SAM <3 But in all seriousness, when HTD comes out, how is armor going to work? Will it be something interchangeable in classes, or just one set outfit?
Sam: Sure send me a some sprites of yourself. We want pretty much everybody to wear everything. If you want to be a mage with plater armor go ahead. You will sacrifice some stats since plate armor will feature more strength but you will be more durable.
6. Ume/MMaester: Could you please stop raising the level? Why do you want us to be so strong before we even get to the supposedly hard gyms? i figure we will be able to beat the next gym in one try at this rate. thats how easy PokéTower was. You could make it, so you will only be able to level up until a certain level if you haven't gotten a certain badge yet. Like in the games Pokémon would not obey you if you didn't have a certain badge. For example, until you win the Cascade badge, the limit is 30. And until you win the Rainbow badge, the limit is 50, etc.
Sam: The reason I raise the cap is to give you guys something to do, plus some people get stuck in the game and out leveling a level is the easiest way out.
7. Ume: When are you gonna be more active in the forums? We are official...aren't we? >insert puppydogface here<
Sam: I really want to be more active but like I talked about earlier in the blog it's really hard to find time to do that.

8. Ume: Oh, I also want your opinion on this.. Who do you think is the best Pokémon between Rhydon, Scyther, Gengar and Lickitung?Sam: Gengar > Scyther > Rhydon > Lickitung.

9. JohtoTrainer: Will we eventually get to play mini-games for casino coins?Sam: It sounds like something that would be pretty cool but it falls into that priority list issue.

10. Link: Do you realistically think HTD will be even a bigger hit than PTD, or do you think that when both are finished, PTD will still be bigger?
Sam: I think HTD has the potential to be bigger just because more websites will be able to talk about it and I will be able to put it on more devices (Ipad, iphone, android etc). So I think it has potential to be bigger but it's up to us to execute the idea properly. PTD is already big so we will see.

If you want your question to show up on next week's blog go to our forum now (look at the fan links tab up top) and submit your question.

Okay so finally let's talk about this week.

Added shinies back in the wild (100%)Going back and making the game less grindy for new players (100%) - Each level has bonus exp for pokemon under a certain level. If you pokemon training on that level is under the bonus cap then he will receive twice the experience.New Story Level (100%) - Arrival at Saffron City

Level Intro (100%)

Level Layout (100%)

Level Waves (100%)

Level Ending (100%)

New Mystery Gift (100%) - New Avatar - Thanks Kimmy Lube! <3

Avatar Art (100%)

Implemented in Game (100%)

Implemented in Avatar Chat (100%) v1.4 is now out!

Implement in Pokemon Center (100%)

Set up Mystery Gift Code (100%) - Coming on Monday!

Added Zoom In and Out (100%) You can now choose from the speed options independently instead of having to cycle them (100%) Fixed Thunder missing when it's raining (100%)Fixed Solarbeam graphic when the speed is not x1 (100%)Fixed Doubleslap not being removed from the target in certain occations (100%)Added an Opening Song to the game (100%)
Allow players to change their email and/or password in the pokemon center (0%) - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
Adding pokemon attacks to the trading center pokemon (0%)- Thanks Nssvelocity!
Silver Wing is missing buffs (0%)

That's what we have so far, as always let me know what you think, and keep coming back during the week to see how my progress on the update is going. As I work/finish parts I will update the blog.

Have a good week and Hero Tower Defense Tuesday is tomorrow so look forward to that!

280 comments:

Sam, that was a lot to read (well not really a lot but you get what I am saying) now I hate to be a critic but I hate the idea of your shiny hunt. Basically, its luck based which there is nothing wrong with, my problem is that when playing the game you have forever to look in one spot to try and find a shiny pokemon (even PTD before they were removed and you didnt hack), but now from what I read and my interpretation of it we will only have like 1 week to hopefully get a shiny pokemon in a certain area. What if I miss a week and its one of the shiny pokemon I need? Personally I feel that we should be allowed to search for shiny pokemon more than once a day or at the very least be guaranteed something for doing the "shiny hunt" (Ie. Regular pokemon with breeding move or something that isnt as rare, but still decent). Now Im not saying that this idea wont be loved by many, as I know it will, and I am almost positive if posted I will be bashed for this. However based on what im thinking is going down with PTD, the game might have just died for me here.

Im sorry for being a critic, and I love where this game has gone, I just feel this method of shiny hunting is a bad idea.

*Side note* I e-mailed you a while back about losing 2 mews, you started to respond but then you kind of just stopped, I have the information on the SnD coins I purchased to get them...

Love your work Sam, I completely agree with the shiny changes. I have all sorts of shiny pokemon through trading on the forum, but I feel that the game loses something when the 'rare' pokemon are popping up everywhere. Down with hackers!! Thanks Sam

2ND. and sam, will there be a new pokemon this week. there shoudnt be that many more you need to put in PTD. and also when are we going to the power plant? be a good place to get electabuzz and then something could happen with zapdos!

Hey Sam,Love the new Shiny Hunt idea. I'm glad that something's being done about the incredible amount of hacking going on. It's demoralizing to me as a non-hacker when I spend months gathering rare shiny Eevees and shiny Drowzees... only to have a hacker obtain double the Eevees/Drowzees I have in 30 minutes with a program...

The first question that comes to mind when reading over your Shiny Hunt idea is: if the new shiny hunt location is changed every week and we can only participate in the shiny hunt once per day... we'll only have 7 chances to obtain a particular shiny we want? On some routes where 6 or 7 different Pokemon show up, that's still an incredibly low chance isn't it? If I want a shiny Snorlax, I'll only have 7 chances during the week when we're on the Pokemon Tower level and then that'll be it? I feel that 7 chances coupled with the fact that I have to make a random combination of 6 Pokemon out of the 80 or so Pokemon currently in game... makes the odds of finding the shiny I want very low. I understand that the point of finding a shiny is SUPPOSED to be low... but when shinies were in the wild, I ALWAYS had that low probability of finding the shiny I wanted. With this new system, I have that low probability for only a week... Did I misinterpret your shiny hunt idea?

Also, will the team combinations have any sort of logic behind them? For example, to get a shiny Goldeen, we'd need Weedles and Caterpies since you need worms to catch fish? Or will the team combinations just be random / based on luck?

you may be first this time!! but one day, BAM someone will get ahead of you on this!love the idea, way i read it, sounded kind of like the Mastermind game haha with all the combinationscan't wait to check this one out!

I'm gunna play the game a whole lot less now that shiny pokemon don't spawn in the wild. Once you've beat a stage, gotten my team to max level, and caught the pokemon in the stage there's no incentive other than money grinding =(

Second?Hey sam if going to put in trading avatars i have an idea an example is player1 can browse through player2's list n select one of his avatars from his list then player2 chooses what he wants from player 1 n when they are happy with their decisions then each of them gets a copy of their selected avatar

I think taking away shinies in the wild is extremely unfair to the people who play fair... Some of us don't have time to come by every day to do a shiny hunt, but we like to have that small chance to run into one, on any level. Personally, I come by 2-3 time a week to play for maybe half an hour per sitting. Usually it's less than that. I'm a busy college student, and I don't have the means to donate for SnD coins, unfortunately. (I'm on a tight budget, and I also can't pay online until I'm 18, next month.) I never liked the concept of shiny hunts in the first place, even when not in context of PTD. I just like to have a small chance to find and catch one, in any area of the game where there are wild Pokemon. At this point, I personally feel that you're not staying faithful to the games like you have been trying to, up until now. I'm 100% sure that there are many other people out there in very similar situations to myself, who have similar feelings about this. You're making things worse for the hackers, but you're making things even worse for those who play fair. Besides, no matter how secure something is, there will inevitably be hackers who will try to get shiny/rare/legendary Pokemon... By taking away shinies in the wild, you're basically telling them that you've upped security, and that they just have to break a new code to get into the safe. But then you'll have two broken locks. Isn't one enough? I really feel like you are only making the entire situation worse, and just encouraging hackers to keep on exploiting new holes in your game. I really enjoy PTD. But I don't like how you change it in response to every single thing the hackers do. You're only encouraging them. You react to them too easily, and the game and the fair players are suffering greatly from it.

I don't really know what to think about shiny hunt. Tt was better to go any level and just farm it for shinies. And now we will be limited(1 time per day). IMO this change is not necessary. If somebody wants to hack - he will hack, if not he will play fair.

i have a question! on route 12, the pidgeots are using sand attack to lower my pokemon's accuracy, and I am trying to use haze to nullify that to no effort, what's up with that?

also, why does nidoqueen get crunch? i dont remember that being in the game. it's cook that nidoqueen gets it, but... didn't expect that.

ALSO! I'm busy with classes so i didnt play PTD for like 2 months! Holy crap I missed a lot of good mystery gift pokemons like venonat and the such!

also, props to you for doing the right thing with the shinies. I just wish I saved up on a another shiny poliwag and shiny spearow so i can do an extra shiny jynx/shiny farfetch'd trade. I wish you can add more to the game corner too...

How will we know when we find a working combination? If it only raises the chance of getting a shiny, we can't know if we just got lucky with a low level combo or hit a decent combo. You could make it more black and white - if you use a particular combination you win, if not you lose, and you would have to prevent the same combo winning more than once

Firstly I will make a summary of the things I highly (HIGHLY) dislike about this update.The only reason I was still playing every day for this long (it's been a couple of months now) is because I get excited when I see a shiny, even though I already have 40+ shiny pidgeys. Taking them out of the game to the special shiny hunt makes me not want to play anymore because it is yet another thing I have to start paying attention to just to find something to do.

At first I was grinding my way through misty (took me forever because back then we didn't have speedX4 and a level cap of...30?Then as I beat her I had to play to get some good pokemons on good levels to keep beating the new map without looking up the strategy to do so, I love finding things out myself.Then as I finally beat every map (We were at the dark cave by then) I decided to grind some money to be able to buy some stones (we didn't have the daily code yet)After that the level caps suddenly went skyhigh as well as the daily code to be implemented (100K, so much!) so I decided to grind my pokemon to the max level as well as earn money to buy it.Suddenly the gamecorner arrived, another way of getting new special pokemons which I found cool other than having to load a page 500 times (great job on improving it so I only have to do that 50 times a day) but on the downside, I keep getting the pointless 1-50k coins, something I don't need anymore because after playing it every day I had enough coins to buy every pokemon available, making the daily code something that I will still buy but stopped caring about (I get coins anyway)Then I suddenly started getting a ton of shinies in the wild, pidgey after pidgey, almost caught one every day (I keep it running 24/7, and check+start a map almost 3 times an hour if possible)

Now I have 170+pokemon with only shinies that I have more than once, every pokemon is at least level 40 and about 90% at 60. I have 15mil cash so I can go 150 days without playing and still get my highest daily code. I caught every pokemon catchable at this point in the game. The reason I still played was because I got myself shinies, they were special and a way for me to show off to the friends (and girlfriend) that play this game.

Now I will be forced to put up a team in the pokemon center, find the golden team with 170 pokemons (132466072939200 combinations? if you include 6 avatars)

Please find another sollution to get rid of the hackers, I am not able (I don't have visa) to buy any snd coins so shitload of playing was the only way I could get anything special and now that's gone. I want to be able to go hunt for shinies on any map I want with any team I want.

I lost any reason to keep playing the game and I'm hoping you will find a way to get it back properly without me having to use the trading center so often.

If at all possible: allow us to pick what version we play and disable the trading for those that want it. I want to keep being able to catch my shinies in the wild and get my daily/weekly code and I don't care for trading or anything else.

Until anything changes I wont be playing anymore and I know it doesn't matter to anybody but me but I hope at least somebody reads this and agrees

I'm really disappointed in the way shinys are being changed. I feel that you need a poll to see what your users want to do with the way shinys are caught is needed. Only getting a maximum of one shiny a day and one that appears at a specific location, for those who have most of the shinys this really sucks. I can see the game losing a lot of fans. It's the grinding that gives the users something to do during the week, a few people hacking doesn't mean the game has to be ruined for everyone else.

Hey Sam, I know you want to stop the hacking of shiny pokemon but i dont really like this shiny hunt thing. Once per day? Is this really how your gonna do it? To me, now there isnt much point of playing ptd, it is now about the pokemon center. I mean since the new levels come out each week, I really feel there is only that one day of the release where I would actually play ptd. The other days I would be spending my time on the pokemon center because there is nothing to do in the game! You moved almost everything to the pokemon center and it isnt as much fun anymore :(

Hi Sam, thanks again for the new update. I just wanted to ask you - will you take all of our shinies or we get to keep the ones we already have? Because for example, my Alakazam is a shiny, and i got it as a shiny Abra form a weekly gift some months ago, and it was really hard to raise pokemon back then, and it's still one of my favorite pokemon that i have. So I was wondering do we get to keep the ones we already gave? Thanks!!

I really like your game, but i'm sorry, i don't like the new way for shinies.

Playing PTD during hours is fun because we can lvl up our pokemons, and catch some shinies sometimes! It's all the interest, i don't want to make lvl without any surprise in the lvl, it will be really boring.

I don't think everybody have all the shinies, 1 on 10.000 seems to be a good number, when you play pokemon black or white, i think it's more than 1 on 10.000.

Maybe you should create more quest like for the shiny voltorb, that was cool.

So, i hope you will consider this...I don't understand why it would be so easy to have a shiny abra on the game center, and so hard to find a digglet.

Maybe we could win shinies with the daily code instead of useless pokemon.Sorry for my poor english, i'm just a Little French Frog.

"There are players out there supporting me with their hard earned money and I just can't allow players to get the same thing just but running a program that let's them hack."

How about the people that don't fit into either cathegory? The people that more then "coming back every week" actualy come back every day? The ones that spend hours and hours trying to get their hard work shinies? =( (I spent weeks after Eevee/dogs and still haven't have, you thing I had a problem? No! Cause it was part of the challenge)

Resuming the problems IMO:

- clicking a link isn't that fun- clicking a link (once a day) doesn't entertain/challenge- pokemon/avatar combo that you can only try 7/week if I got it right its too much possibilities- dressing/changing team everyday to see if a shiny likes how you look isn't fun...- if shiny become to easy to get like this it ruins the shininess- if they become way harder (as i think it will with only 7 shots/week/place) will only lead to more frustration (imagine most people vote the new lvl most (voting) people get shiny lapras, the rest of the people won't be abble to go there for a long while (if ever))- this system will make all shiny pokemon unwanted, cause if I get 1 or 2 shiny diglets I can't trade, cause EVERYONE is getting diglets also...- there is NOTHING else to do the rest of the week...

Dunno if you read my e-mail explaining how not having shiny farming would make us just beat the new lvl the day they come out, then only come click the daily code, and now the shinies become just an instant visit? =S

the only good thing is that its better then not having shinies/dogs as it is now.

Please isn't there any other way to solve the actual problems that lets us have more fun with? More hardworking, more challenging, more pokemonish? PLEASE!?

i dont really get what shiny hunt is? are you saying we only have 7 chances (once per day) to get the shiny pokemon before it moves on to a different location?

and i think you should give me some credit for the avatar stuff cuz that was my idea. matt griffin sent you an email with the idea giving me credit. i originally had that idea so i should get some credit haha :P

one last thing, when you replied to my tweet, I wasnt sure when you meant you would reply to the email. its 8 right now as im writing this where im from, so are you going to reply today? i just want to know when i should expect the reply in my inbox.

I hardly think that this is fair at all. I've been an honest player the whole time, working for my shinies. Everyone, with enough determination is going to hack. Hacking isn't difficult, there are countless tutorials online. I should know, I've been trying to hack all the Pokemon I lost two months ago on my Pokemon Silver version. But not on here. No, I've been honest. Let alone, I got a lot problems of my own, so I can't support you with money in order for me to buy shinies off of you. (Which would take all the hard work fun away from me as well!) To have that hard work of mine spat back in my face, telling me I can't get something by hoping to be lucky and work hard, well...I don't know. It's aggravating....and kind of reminds me of businessmen.

I like the point of question 6. Just leveling up the pokemon isn't what's important to the game. Too strong teams don't need tactics or something, they just spam attacks to beat a certain level. There's enough to do instead of stupid training, even without the upcoming shinies: Trying tactics, doing levels with underleveled pokemon or just searching for something to trade, like snorlax or lapras. I don't think people being stuck need a hicher level cap than it's right now. Leaving the level cap down allows players who don't have hours to play every day to train their team to a standart. They simply don't have the time to train their whole team from 60 to 62 every week. I would do well with the level cap not rising, then maybe there's gonna be a challenging level like the last gym again. people getting stucked in the most actual level maybe don't think into the game enough. IMO ptd should be something you have to understand

i dont like the one week shiny hunt thing, first off, i only need two more shiny eevee's, and the new ones like krabby snorelax,etc, so it'll take weeks to get to a pokemon i dont have to risk not getting it and wait weeks for it again, not to mention i dont have motivation to play any more w/out shinies in the wild so that i can keep my monet up from the daily code, hope you can revise this sytstem to make it better

Hi Sam, I just have a few requests for a future version of PTD (doesn't have to be this week). Can you add more levels like Nugget Bridge and Rock Tunnel where we are attacking instead of defending? Right now, speed boosting moves are kind of pointless. Also, can you please implement the TM for Dragon Claw? I know only Charizard, Dragonite, and Aerodactyl can learn it, and Charizard already learns it, but Dragonite is currently lacking a reliable STAB move. Thank you, and sorry for the long post.

Hi Sam! I dont know if i like the new way of getting Shinies, but i totaly understand that move. Will the conditions be random? Or are you going to add conditions like in some games or even the TV-Show? I like the Idea, but am i correct that you will have only 6 times the chance of getting a Shiny each week? So you go to the Center, select your Avatar and Team, go back to that named Route and keep playing, and afterwards can see if you where lucky getting a Shiny? im not sure if i got it right =)

All sounds great to me. I've gotten so sick of people complaining about SnD coins. I don't understand why people think they are unfair. Why would people complain about getting rare pokemon by helping y'all out? And shiny hunt idea sounds like a good alternative. And of course, hacking is super lame.

I think that you are actually beeing greedy and you are right that hacking is wrng but thats their choice if they want to do that if you ask me i think that you just shouldn't let them go crazy about it but let them do what they want.

And okay, shinies are cool and all. But the real point of the game is the TD aspect and training your pokemon. Shinies are not technically necessary in any way. People who are saying you quit just because of this, quit complaining. We're lucky Sam has made a game so many of us find so enjoyable. And hacking just belittles the people who try to play it right and it belittles Sam's work on the game.

On a side note, not sure if you noticed but I added two new tabs to the blog. One is the HTD Tuesdays! tab and it just contains links to the past blog post about HTD in an easy to find way. The other one is the Labs tab and that one contains any ideas that we come up with but aren't officially working on yet. Let me know what you think of them.

Sam I really hate what hackers are doing to this game. The idea of shinies is to find them randomly in the wild, and the idea of making them only available under certain circumstances basically ruins the idea of the shiny hunt. Maybe you could program the game to recognize when cheat engine is open on the computer and then make finding shinies impossible if it's detected? Obviously, I'm not sure if this is possible.

As someone who grinded all the way up and painstakingly searched for shinies more than anything, I have to agree with a lot of posts and disapprove of the shiny hunt. It kills a lot of this game's replay factor, and removes that mini heart-attack you get when a shiny finally pops up. There's gotta be another way around this; even if the poll says people like the idea, I feel like those who have really thought this through have voiced their opinions in the comments.

I know the winner will be shiny hunt, but I really think this is unfair, as we're only allowed to get one shiny a day. I think this makes the game too dull; only having leveling up to do which was boring itself is boring, and now even having shinies being found like this, totally luck based? Well that's just unfair on the people that play your game alot. You can play 5 MINUTES a day, and get shinies, and you can play 5 HOURS a day, and not get any shinies. I think having the battle ready for free Pokemon was bad enough on the people who work hard day in day out, but this is even worse. This is just as bad as the idea of adding PP. I'll still play the game, but it's just going to be a lot less fun knowing I and lots of others have been hard done by.

I hate to post these kinds of comments, I don't even bother posting "great game, it's brilliant" because we just take it for granted. I do want to congratulate you on this game, and this is why people are complaining about things. I was just expressing me opinion, that's all.

sam, i hate to say this, but if this is the answer for the shinies, PTD needs to RIP man, cause your puttin everyin thing in to a septrate area(pokemon center), the game isnt nearly as fun as it used to be, level cap is goin 2 be 100 by the 6th or 7th gym at the rate your going, but to move the biggest reson why people play to the pokemon center to?... maybe its time to stop.... whats next, take every ones shines away from them for grinding over hunting them?...

lets face it sam, i have agreed with every thing till this point, but removing random shines for once a week shines wont work, any level past route 1, it jest fails on cause of the amount of pokemon on them, and it wont be a millionth as fun as waitin for one to show up, let alone yet another thing for pokemon center...

on a good note tho, love the new level, very well done, now if only i knew how to catch a lapras ^^

Shiny hunt sounds DUMB. So now I have even more randomness in the game, and it doesn't even involve the game, its clicking yet ANOTHER link in the PTD once a day... not fun at ALL. What happened to shiny quests? That was funish. Yea, finding 10 pikachu in one game was annoying, but at least I was guaranteed to get my shiny if I put in the effort.

I honestly may stop playing this game if this is the route it is going. Really hate that A. everything is turning into click a link in the pokemon center vs. in-game content and B. even more randomness. Can't wait for it to be a month of the shiny's I already have and then when it's my week, I choose the wrong 6/151 pokemon to place in my party and click a link...

Grinding > This. At least when I grind I know my odds, 1/8000, and I know my pokemon have no effect on it, and I know statistically I can get the shiny if I wait, and I get XP/Pokemoney for doing it all.

The results of the poll seem to reflect a common statistics problem. The people who are most opposed to the shiny hunt post frustrated comments, while people who are fine with it just vote on the poll.

UPDATE: Because of a large amount of the player base (about 40%) didn't really like the Shiny hunt idea I have decided to put it on hold, shiny pokemon will return to the wild but in a more secure way, in the future I will add something like the shiny hunt to give players an additional way of hunting shinies but for now it will have to wait. Thank you all for your feedback and support!

Poll is gone? I guess the result was not as expected. I think many people just choose the Shiny Hunt because they want the shinies to come back as soon as possible (this weekend). Choosing any other options (except allow hacking) will delay putting back shinies into the game. If only they get better choices.....

I know PTD is only in Kanto but should have a kind of battle tower and we can win rarer shiny Pokemon the more wining streaks we got. I think you should work on this for this week instead of a new story level. Battle tower will allow people to do some grinding .... although it's only limited to one place but it should still be more fun than Shiny Hunt in the Pokemon Center....

To enter battle tower, your party's level must be at least (for example, 30). The opponent may ask for defend 3 candies against their (let's say) 30 Pokemons or steal 3 candies against their 6 best Pokemon. The first opponent will be at a lower level than yours but that slowly goes up as the winning strike increases. After 5 winning strikes, you are allowed to quit and get a prize (Pokedollars). Every 5 more winning strikes, the prize value increases. On (perhaps) the 20th winning strikes, the winning prize is a list of random 5 shiny commonly seen Pokemon (any Pokemons whose highest rate of appearance is > 20%) and you get to pick one. Then on the 30th, choice of 5 shinies who are between 15-20%, then 10-15% for 35th, 5-10% for 40th, 0.5-5% for the 45th, finally Snorlax or Lapras for the 50th streak.

despite you not doing the shiny hunt, i think it would still be cool if you implemented the avatars and pokemon combination increasing the chances of getting a shiny. or at the very least wearing a certain avatar to increase the chance of a shiny showing up in a certain level/chapter.

you could also make the past avatars available in the daily code or in the game corner to buy for a hefty amount like the duskull avatar.

It is true that we will be more focused on this challenge level to get shinnies .... to get us to revisit some of the other level, you can make another "shiny voltorb" quest. This time, maybe catch 12 magikarps or 8 abras or 6 eevees without closing the game and then show them ? then you get a shiny ?. The ultimate challenge is capture 3 Lapras and 3 Snorlax within a week (168 hours, timer should be shown in your game window somewhere) .... and you get a shiny Mew for that (this quest can be done multiple times but the reward beyond 1st try would be normal mew) ? Also for the 50th streak, to make it 5 choices, add the 3 normal colored dogs in there too.

I love your activity, and I think you made the right decision. I bet everyone loves to see the "A Shiny has appeared!" box, even if it's a Pidgey. Now, can't you give us any information about the new level / mystery gift?

Since the new level is Saffron Gym, you should put Mew (regular) in it because you had promised Regular Mew would be in the game. Mew, who would be Level 50, would NEVER be shiny, and have a 1/4000 chance of appearing. (0.025%) And Mew will use Transform.

Sam, can you make the speed multiplier be a slider, so we can go straight from 2x speed to 1x speed. I prefer to look for rare pokemon when the speed is 2x, and when I have to click it twice to get it to 1x so I can catch them easier, they get killed when it is on 3x and 4x. It would be very hlepful... GREAT GAME!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

@danychriz That would really be too easy... I found 2 Lapras(es?) in the same attempt at my, like... 11th try, and if you play daily you can easily find 1-3 Snorlaxes and 3-5 Lapras(es?) per day. The "ultimate challenge", imo, would be to spot a shiny Snorlax and a shiny Lapras in the wild, in less than x days. Like, someone who's been hunting these shinies forever, and you would have to tell him that you've seen'em a few days ago somewhere, but if those days pass you would forget (hey, I had to find an excuse). Then it would reset. That'd be really annoying. I let my imagination float too much...

"Anonymous said...@danychriz That would really be too easy... I found 2 Lapras(es?) in the same attempt at my, like... 11th try, and if you play daily you can easily find 1-3 Snorlaxes and 3-5 Lapras(es?) per day. The "ultimate challenge", imo, would be to spot a shiny Snorlax and a shiny Lapras in the wild, in less than x days. Like, someone who's been hunting these shinies forever, and you would have to tell him that you've seen'em a few days ago somewhere, but if those days pass you would forget (hey, I had to find an excuse). Then it would reset. That'd be really annoying. I let my imagination float too much...November 8, 2011 3:39 PM"

2 Laprases in one run.... that's super unlikely, dude. Maybe one of it was blue but you mistook it for green? I would say it takes in at least 2 hours (or at least 3 hours if you are multitasking) to find one of these huge Pokemon. So at least 12 hours within a week playing only on those 2 places. That will be super boring even for people who have the time so the reward may be appropriate. But if it still too achievable, how about 3 Lapras and 3 Snorlax in 50 hours? That should be difficult enough....

About: "Going back and making the game less grindy for new players (0%) - The newest level will always be top end and require a high level team."I would say that I'm playing from the beginning and my Pokemon are rarely at a maximum.The last level I had to play, without being training level, my Pokemon were a maximum level 50, currently they could be 64.It's all a matter of strategy.

In other words, I came here just to say that it is not necessary to facilitate so much. Being difficult is also a fun part!

@Sam I think Shiny quest would be better like the voltorb one but you should make it harder for rarer pokemon and if you could make it so that you could do the shiny quest multiple times then every time you do it the quest gets x2 harder than last time or x5 harder for dogs(if you make a quest for them)since they are super rare. You could also make a Shiny quest tab in the pokedex so that you can work on multiple quest at the same time but the game will save after you complete a part of the quest(in voltorb quest it would be that when you catch the 10 pikachus it would save so that you won't need to catch the 10 then train a pikachu and voltorb to a level in 1 game). Please consider this at least.

Sam u should reconsider removing the shiny hunt because I have an idea that will make everyone happy u can make the place from the previous week still able to go to so u can keep on searching for a particular shiny pokemon

Good decision postponing the Shiny Hunt. I like where your head is at, but seems like it wasn't fully baked. It would be way too difficult for you to maintain that once PTD is fully complete. It would require you to change the route each week.

You're good at what you do. Each time hackers break your system, you take it a step further.

Have you considered getting rid of the pop-up again? This would eliminate the speed/wave hack problems making people actually PLAY again, rather than just wait until the pop-up happens.

hey sam! great idea for an achievement!Catch a snorlax, a lapras, and possibly some other hard to catch pokemon. Also, if you could include exeggcute, my favorite grass type, as a catchable pokemon, that would be amazing :)

Hey Sam. I just wanted to say, the difference between seeing shinies in the GB games and seeing shinies on this is that we're getting pokemon in bulk at a rapid pace, especially those of us who grind. I probably see more wild Pokemon in a few playthroughs of Route 8 than I do 1 playthrough of Gold or Emerald.

For those who hacks the game to get a shiny, come on! Who wants a really rare shiny but is hacked? We do our best of luck hunting them. People who offer me these shiny hacked, I decline them because I never liked hacked version.

Sam, maybe you can make the hacked version not work in the game to make it fair to those who do not hack.

I'm really glad for your final decision! After finishing my presentation for tomorrow on Osphronemidae family (google it =P) felt good to see that the game is comming back and instead of a restriction will open new possibilities to the game!

1. In the LABs tab, like the creature idea. If you want I can try and send you some sketches I do. I'm an awesome drawer for my age. (10)0<>0

2. Since Maruto was found, will we get back to, I'm not saying his/her name. Hint: Is whaleish, Big with red stripes, starts with K, and a better hint, Brock. :p O.K I'm kidding. Kyogre. But really, what happened? This is like the Articles of Confederation. (Great, now I'm thinking about school at about 9:00 pm) The people have to much power.

3. Please lower the chances of shiny starters and dogs. Yes, it happened again. This time, a SHINY Entei*! I'm not joking.

4. Totally off topic, add a Black Mask sprite in HTD. (Or maybe just the mask) Would like it if I was a boss.

The idea of the shiny hunt was a good one, Sam. I just think that the same route for only a week is....... a short amount of time. Maybe 2 weeks would be a more reasonable time limit. Personally, the original way to find shiny pokemon is my favorite. I can't wait for shiny pokemon to be back in the game again. ^^

What did u do different with dogs? They seem not be able to hack em. So cant u just do the same thing to Shinies? Im no programmer and this question might be dumb, but they have the same rules, just different rate of appearing. Should work!

Really?? Thanks Black Mask! :) If I find a suicune, maybe I could call it......... the Blue Mask! Even though there is such a small chance to find a suicune.......Then again, there is the same small chance to find an entei. Anyway, thanks.J-dog

So I guess the shinies are back. That's great. I like shinies. But honestly, I was fine with them not being in game. It made shinies in PTD much like the shinies in the main series: rare. Frankly, I was running into far too many shinies on certain Routes, especially Pidgey, Ekans, and Zubat.

And to the "fan base", grow up. First you complain about Kyogre. Then you complain about the dogs. Now, you're angry about the shinies.

Seriously, things like "OMG shinies aren't in game anymore? PTD sucks. Sam sucks. Me no like different. Me no like change. Me no play PTD anymore" and other crap like that is disgraceful to the guys who will always support Sam. You want to stop playing the game? Go right ahead, no one's stopping you. The world will keep spinning without your presence. Heck, if anything, it might even be a better place.

You're all lucky Sam actually gives a damn about your opinions. I swear, you "fans" are just as bad as the "true Sonic fans" who say "Sonic 06 sucks! Unleashed sucks! Bring back the classic!" and the uber-defensive bronies who believe that MLP is the best thing ever and anyone who doesn't agree should get bashed, flamed, and friendship cannon'd.

Like I said before, I don't mean to bother you. But there is a pokemon trainer in the trading center who MAY be hacking... His name is *suspicious silence*: bmka! Okay, so bmka has a LOAD of rare shinies, all with the nickname of the store pokemon, but check and see if he is hacking. Just trying to keep ptd trading safe.

I was wondering if you were going to add some moves in for Raikou, Suicune, and Entei to relearn. The level cap is 64 and still haven't learned one move yet. Please add this to one of the things to do in this coming up update.

Hey Sam,I have two Old Rods in one profile is this a glitch? Also the move Perish Song is not work right. What it does is make your Pokemon faint and not the enemy Pokemon. Other than that great job :)

Was wondering if you could throw this into the update for this week because it should be pretty easy to do. Can you add a third display mode to the pokedex (like a grayed out one or something) for pokemon that are currently catchable but you don't own? it would be nice to be able to tell who i still haven't caught yet.

Sam, I can tell that After You does lower the cool down time of moves, but it doesn't make sense that Clefable uses it to lower the enemy's cool down time. It makes the move pointless if it doesn't apply to allies.

Hey Sam, thanks for deciding to leave the shinies in the wild. It's really one of hte htings that make you want to replay the levels again and again. And it's already really hard to get them.

But i wanted to write for another thing. In some of the levels (ex. Route 3) After a few pokemoncomign out , the game closes and you go to the mains screen directly. I guess someone already told you about this bug but i ust wanted to be sure you know.

Sam, I've noticed that even though many people have recommended it, the fix for Thunder's accuracy is still not on your to-do list. It seems like it would be a relatively easy fix (since you already have no-miss moves)and the latest level being all water means that Thunder is probably the most used move in the game right now. Is there a reason you haven't put it on the to-do list?

Sam, this is just a suggestion, but I would like it if HTD was moved to a different day, like Thursaday or something xD... The reason I say this is you always post Weekly Progress for PTD on Monday, and you post HTD on Tuesday, meaning aside from one day, HTD will always be first... Whereas if you post on Thursday, the balance would be more even :3 If you did it on Tuesday on purpose so HTD gets more fans then that's clever, ignore my suggestion, if not then please think about it ;)

Hey Sam, I don't mind if there is no new story level this week (if you already worked on it, we are very happy of course). Anyway, in Pokemon Tower 2, is it intended that 2 Haunters can "double-confuse" your Pokemons? It's wierd because statuses don't stack up. Also, is it intended that Vileplume's aromatherapy not curing confusion status?

There's a reason it's not fixed. It's not a glitch! While thunder's accuracy IS 100% in the rain, that is BEFORE you factor in Pidgeot's Sand Attack. Sand Attack will reduce your accuracy regardless of weather enhancements. Good eye to the mechanics, Sam.

2ND. and sam, will there be a new pokemon this week. there shoudnt be that many more you need to put in PTD. and also when are we going to the power plant? be a good place to get electabuzz and then something could happen with zapdos!

you might already have plans for the power plant and the legendary birds though. the time at least considering would be appreciated though.

Sam,Could you add hot keys (ex. pressing 1 would select the pokemon in slot number 1) to make the game go smoother. When I am trying to move my pokemon around quickly I have to constantly right click or press menu. Also I think that there should be a way to get rare candies, such as daily code or game corner. The game corner would be a better place if you added games to play to win (or lose)

hey sam. Would it be possible to add some stuff to the daily code??? I AM SICK OF CASINO COINS!!!! I have already bought what I wanted from the game corner. Maybe you could increase the chances for getting a pkmn with a breeding move from 10% in the rare daily code to 20%. Or increase the chance to get a random avatar from 10% to 15%. Or both. I am just sick of getting casino coins.......Your #1 fan, J-dog

@J-dogYou're right! I'm also sick of getting casino coins but have nothing to spend them to. I don't play casino anymore. It's pointless! Maybe additional casino items or higher chance of Pokemon with breeding moves in the daily code.

@ ZKS: If thunder is assigned accuracy of 200% during rain, Pidgeot's sand attack will lower it to 100% (assuming that sand attack halves accuracy). That's the easiest way to tweak this, I think.

@PTD4LIFE: If we follow the original Pokemon game, the Power Plant will have to wait until we got TM surf. Also, there should be a good reason for the main player, Joey, (and perhaps Maruto and also Team Rocket) to go to the power plant. Like a power outage somewhere. JUST BE PATIENT .... wait until the story line takes you there. :)

@Kelpers213: You can put up to 6 Pokemons that you want to move to another "BOX" into the "slots for 6 Pokes you select to play a level", then change your BOX and drop the 6 Pokemons there. No need to drag and drop one by one across BOXes. I personally sort all my Pokemons by level so I never need to move them around manually.

Sam, I know you said that you are too busy to answer all of the questions that are constantly coming at you, but I'd really like you to reply to this, because I personally think that it would be very helpful.

Can you please make a replay button??? So that if you want to replay a level, you can do it without having to re-select the level you want and all of that. It would save time. Thanks

If you're going to add hydro pump as a TM yo're ruining the entire game!! I just traded my level 63 Blastoise with a level 7 squirtle just to learn him hydro pump. ALso i think the TMs are way to cheap. In the games it were really hard to find TMs and now you can buy any TM you want. Hydro pump is the reason why some water pokès are better than others and now they're all the same!!

@Since the new level is Saffron Gym, you should put Mew (regular) in it because you had promised Regular Mew would be in the game. Mew, who would be Level 50, would NEVER be shiny, and have a 1/4000 chance of appearing. (0.025%) And Mew will use Transform.

Meh, I don't think adding Hydro Pump as a TM is a good move, it would kinda spoil strategies used to beat levels because it has 120 base power :/ I'm not against this THAT much like I was with the shinies, but still, I think it would be better if it wasn't added xD

I highly disagree with adding a hydro pump as a TM as well, it is going to screw up the game by incorporating it now. I had to do a very similar thing as anon 7:59 did in order to get hydro pump; it's an exclusive move that adds more strategy to the game.

I will also agree with anon 3:15, if I were you I would try and work on this game being more accurate to the original one and adding the original TMs rather than making ones up so its easier for everyone else. Most of the people that voted yes to this poll are probably people that just want the highest amount of strongest moves possible and dont actually care about gameplay but rather just beating it.

I also saw this earlier but I think you should tier the TMs as well if you could. Weaker TMs like water gun should be available for like 5,000, standard TMs like rollout maybe would be available for 10,000, better moves like thunderbolt or psychic could be worth 20,000, and finally the top tier like thunder, fire blast, and solarbeam could be worth 50,000. Just a suggestion

Hey Sam, for the Hydro Pump thing. I agree to make it learnable, though it should be a from a move tutor, instead of a in a TM. Make a move tutor section! And since all other moves can be from move tutors, it can cost a lot more, like 50,000 per move.

@Anon about Mew: I don't think legendaries should be able to spawn in the wild. It has to be exclusive, only 1 exists in the wild. Also at this point I can't see how Mew ties in to the story line but someday it will .... and perhaps it will be roaming around Kanto like Latias/Latios did in Hoenn.

@cfcbesto~ and Kyle B: I don't think adding Hydro Pump into the TM list will make the game easier. It still depend on you whether you want to teach your Pokemon the move Hydro Pump or not.... if you want challenge then why don't you just not teach any TM to any Pokemon? I personally don't teach much TM moves .... I teach just the Pokemons that has a plain/not so good learnset. And about Hydro Pump, I think Ice Beam is a more uber move than Hydro Pump because freeze is arguably the best status affliction in the game. Plus Hydro Pump misses 20% of the time while Ice Beam is accurate. In my opinion, thunder is the most uber move in this game right now and will increase in uberness when 4.9 comes out.

@Anon 2:39PM ..... According to the original game, you have to wait until Safari Zone to get TM Surf .... I am pretty sure Sam tries to follow this.

Hey Sam,first thing is that I can't use perish song on boss Snorlax. What is the problem? Second that is I like and also dislike the hydro pump as a tm.Also if it is going to be a tm, who's going to learn it?

Sam I think that you should have Hydro Pump become a Tm after we beat a certain level like the 2nd gym. After all, in the original pokemon games they give tm's after your victory, but in yours you only get a gym badge. I think that 8 moves should become tm's after you beat a certain gym. You can be creative, but for the first 4 gyms (In order) I like Dig, Hydro Pump, Discharge, and Energy Ball. I would love it if you did that, it would make this game more perfect. Please tell me what you think Sam!

I'm with a bunch of others on the anti-Hydro Pump TM. There are a ton of moves I would love to see as TMs, but I don't want that to happen to happen because then I get to use different pokemon in different situations. It adds to the puzzle element of TD games and keeps to the pokemon world. It's just a bunch of power gamers going nuts over it. Same people probably want to catch Kyogre and ask if you'll put in other pokemon besides the original 151.

come on! don't make hydro pump a TM. What made me like the game is the challenge itself. I remembered battling the gym levels without the aid of these TMs. Imagine if you battled the fire gym, and all you're pokemons using hydro pump. Where's the fun if you can finish it easily?

By the way, I like brine and surf better than hydro pump.

Sam, maybe you can implement some hidden abilities since you don't need to choose between 1st and 2nd abilities.

Putting up the hydro pump pole was a waste of time. Even though there shouldn't be hydro pump, because if I'm correct ptd should be as much like the games as possible in terms of moves, what did you think people were going to vote for? The right way that nobody likes? Or the cheap inaccurate way that makes their life easier? Lets think for a second... Sorry, I meant no disrespect. Just saying. And I, personally, think that it should NOT be a TM. Maybe a move tutor like Xeno said.

Another thing, Nidoqueen learns crunch? What's up with that? But actually it's very useful...

I am having a problem with daily code....whenever I try to use the daily code it says, "You are not eligible for this code."I have all 4 badges,have beaten the latest level and have 1002629222 poke dollars in the game.Please Sam I tried on all the first rare then uncommon and then common.But it says the same thing......please I am not able to use daily code from last 6 days please do something

Sam, polls are useless. Please dont get yourself in such positions. You made a very good game so far. But if you let the people decide, you will make this game so easy. If the makers of runescape would ask their community about content, they probably would all have every item multiply times. If you make a poll asking: Should every player get all Pokemone in Shiny from the start at lvl 100 and will be invincible and instandkill their enemys, you would get 80% "yes". But would that be a good thing for the game??? NO! Its just a normal thing. Look about the comments. The ones not wanting Hydropump in game comment. But the "yes"-Voters dont. And thats the same effort they put into the game, Sam. Kepp the TMs, HMs and everything else like in the game. When you find a TM on a Rout in game, let it be buyable after you beat the Lvl that represents the meantioned Route. Please think about it.

Perhaps instead of making Hydro Pump a TM make it a move tutor move that is only available after beating the latest level. I don't see how it ruins strategies. We'll have surf eventually I'm guessing, and Hydro Pump a bit stronger but much less accurate. Would you limit the Pokemon who can learn Hydro Pump to the ones who can learn Bubblebeam through the TM list?

hey sam, i wanted to point out a glitch, when playing 4.9, after you beat mewtwo on the second wave, the level finishes, and i don't play the rest of the waves. Is this intentional? Sorry if you have gotton a ton of messages like this already,iceblade